India proposes to ban commercial surrogacy

Proposed bill to prohibit homosexuals, unmarried couples and foreigners from hiring Indian women to have a baby.

India’s government has unveiled a draft law to ban commercial surrogacy, a move that would block homosexuals, single parents, live-in partners and foreign couples from hiring Indian women to have a baby.

Sushma Swaraj, India’s foreign minister, said on Wednesday the new law would prohibit prospective gay parents as homosexuality went against the country’s values.

gay surrogacy

“We do not recognise live-in and homosexual relationships … this is against our ethos,” the Indian Express newspaper quoted Swaraj, a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, as saying.

In 2013, India’s Supreme Court reversed a 2009 high court decision to decriminalise homosexuality. According to Article 377 of the Indian penal code, homosexuality is a crime, which can attract punishment up to 10 years in prison.

Swaraj also said that foreigners, including non-resident Indians (NRIs) and persons of Indian origin (PIOs) were barred from opting for surrogacy as “divorces are very common in foreign countries”.

Only infertile couples who have been married for at least five years could seek a surrogate, who must be a close relative.

“There will be a complete ban on commercial surrogacy,” Swaraj said.

“Childless couples, who are medically unfit to have children, can take help from a close relative, in what is an altruistic surrogacy.”

She said the ban would be introduced 10 months after the bill, which will now go to parliament for approval, to allow pregnant women already in arrangements with couples time to give birth.

Some 2,000 infertile couples hire the wombs of Indian women to carry their embryos through to birth every year, according to the government.

Divided opinions surfaced on Indian social media, with tweets criticising as well as backing the proposed bill.

Aljazeera.com, August 25, 2016

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